Is it because Yaroni is the allows the freest speech out there?
All of the above? Discuss....
With that said, I wonder what the first Bodybuilding forum was...I'm guessing Getbig or elitefitness...I was on both and quit EF when they started charging years ago.
One of the first bodybuilding/strength training groups I ever visited was Misc.fitness.weights 12 or so years back, it was sorta like if you slammed getbig, bodybuilding.com, and goheavy.com all together. There were very few groups back then, so everyone from Pat Arnold to Fred Hatfield to Vic Richards to Craig Titus to Dan Duchaine was forced to mingle. You had no moderation, so you had trolls galore, lots of cross posting wars, etc...., but the thing that made it special was that no one was afraid to call out anyone on bullshit. Sadly, with the advent of regular forums and spambots, the news groups slowly died off.
I think that's the reason why I come here, it's the closest to the good old days I could find. Overmoderation and small audiences have killed off lots of forums over the years, but this is one that still seems decent in that regard.